AP File PhotoNASCAR driver Kyle Busch once again showed he's so good at being bad when he smashed a guitar trophy in Victory Lane after winning the Nashville Nationwide race in June. The 2010 auto racing season will be fantastic.

Jimmie Johnson (NASCAR Sprint Cup) and Donny Schatz (World of Outlaws) will go for their fifth consecutive championships and Top Fuel's Tony Schumacher will try to win his seventh in a row. Formula One champion Jenson Button is headed to McLaren, and they will race Mustangs in the Nationwide Series. Can't wait to see how IndyCar will respond now that it has signed a title sponsor in Izod.

But before we turn the page, let's take one more look at 2009.

DRIVER OF THE YEAR: Jenson Button won one Formula One race in his first nine years combined. He won six times this season to win the world championship.

SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE: The U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis in September was the season's most exciting race. Ashley Force Hood become the first woman to win a Funny Car title at the circuit's most prestigious race, but her achievement nearly turned into a footnote.

John Force lost a controversial race to one of his own drivers, Robert Hight, in the semifinals, allowing Hight to qualify for the Countdown. It cost defending champion Cruz Pedregon a playoff spot.

Force and Tony Pedregon nearly came to blows after Hood beat Tony Pedregon in the finals. The Pedregon brothers accused Force of throwing his race against Hight, while Force responded with, "You're just mad because my little girl kicked your ass."

By the way, Hight went on to win the championship.NEVER SAW HIM COMING: Tony Stewart left the powerhouse Joe Gibbs Racing team to form his own team. Many called it career suicide. Stewart turned out to be racing's biggest surprise. ESPN analyst Tim Brewer told me at the August Michigan race that there wasn't a person in the garage who thought Stewart would lead the standings at that point.

BERNIE MADOFF THOUGHT HE HAD A BAD YEAR: Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s teammates Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon finished one, two and three in the Sprint Cup point standings. Earnhardt finished 25th, making him this year's biggest disappointment.AT LEAST DAVID HAD A ROCK: Credit drag racer Terry Haddock for pulling off this year's biggest upset when he beat Tony Schumacher (aka Goliath) in the opening round at Chicago in June. It marked the first time that Schumacher had lost in the first round in 35 races.

And, yes, that was the same Terry Haddock who raced his Top Fuel Dragster and Funny Car at Martin Dragway's Funny Car Nationals in September.

FROM THE BIG HOUSE TO THE BRICKYARD: The IndyCar season opened with Helio Castroneves in court, accused of tax evasion. Castroneves was acquitted and went on to win his third Indianapolis 500 in May, making him the comeback driver of the year.MORE AIR TIME THAN BALLOON BOY: Carl Edwards went soaring into the grandstand fence along the front stretch on the final lap of this spring's race at Talladega, making his crash this year's most unforgettable. They will show this crash 20 years from now.

GUITAR HERO OR ZERO? Kyle Busch had this year's most entertaining Victory Lane celebration. He made like a rock star, smashing the Sam Bass-painted Gibson guitar trophy in Victory Lane after winning the Nashville Nationwide race in June. It was an all-around rotten thing to do. And yet, NASCAR does need a little spontaneity, even if it's bad. And Busch is so good at being bad.

THEY WON'T BE SHARING THANKSGIVING: Jeremy Mayfield vs. his stepmother, Lisa Mayfield, was this year's best feud. Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski seemed like buds in comparison. Lisa said she saw Jeremy doing methamphetamine many times during the past decade. Jeremy told the Associated Press, "They picked the wrong woman to use against me, because that (bleep) is trash and has got nothing on me."WHY INDYCAR WAS BEST: There were 17 IndyCar Series races, and the points lead changed in 14 of them. Dario Franchitti won the season finale at Homestead-Miami to clinch the championship. It has my vote for best series.